Mothers, Babies, Midwiives: With Woman in Kathmandu

Nepali Ruminations

How are we going to develop the childbirth education that Rashmi wants to do? Well, if we plan classes, they won’t come…. a given. (Childbirth education is not a locally comprehensible concept.) So what about bribing them? We could give away the little stretchy panties that I brought over from the US “Come to childbirth class and get a free pair of stretchy panties!” No….. don’t think so. Maybe we could give away a baby hat? Rashmi has plenty of those. Nah… bribes unlikely to suffice. Only way it will work is to do teaching when they are here anyway. Genius. But there is no appointment schedule. The place is a drop-in center. Mmmmmm.

Solution: On Saturdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at the very approximate time of 4pm there is doctor available time. (All women get a total of 4 prenatal appointments) (We must be wasting our time in the US with our 12 appointments.) One of these four is with the physician. So they show up at 4-ish on those days and wait to see the doctor. We can teach while they wait! No matter that the group will be constantly changing as they go in and out of the doctor’s office….. we can do it! So we design a program with 10-15 minute teaching segments with a start anywhere in the “series” approach. It will work. I believe it. Why not? More likely to work than free stretchy panties.